Rescue
by wholockeduntiltheveryend
Summary: (AU post 4x11) What if Radcliffe hadn't had May relive Bahrain? What if he had the Framework create another alternate reality: she is rescued by her team, over and over, and each time the loop resets right as she beginning to feel safe. May starts to catch on to this false reality, but when the team rescues her for real, will she be able to trust any of them?


There was something sharp sticking into the back of her hand. May opened her eyes blearily, acutely aware of the headache pounding behind her eyelids. The room swam into focus, white walls and metal tables and medical instruments laid out in a careful precision. As she tried to move, May noticed that she was restrained by some sort of straps around her wrist. There was an uncomfortable pressure on her face, and she could now see that there was an IV in the back of her hand.  
She felt her heart rate increase, and quickly tried to calm her breathing. _Radcliffe._ He was here, he was the one who had done this, and if she knew that then she knew where she was. She knew his weaknesses.  
Slowly, trying to keep her heart rate and breathing under control, May searched the room for something that would help her get out of there. There was a table of medical instruments, about 4 feet to her left. It seemed a little too fortuitous, in the situation, but maybe Aida had been careless. She could think about the implausibility of the circumstances later. Right now, she had to get out of there.  
A few minutes and some painstakingly quiet maneuvering later, May was out of the restraints with only a few cuts on her hands. She crept towards the door of the room, steps silent on the tiled floor. On the other side of the door, everything seemed quiet. Even pausing for a moment, ear pressed to the wooden surface, May couldn't detect any movement. She stayed still, hand resting on the cold metal handle. Maybe they had gone out. It was unlikely, she knew, both of them leaving at the same time to give her a window of escape. May listened for another moment. The silence, now, was almost deafening, tantalizing with the promise of a noiseless escape. She turned the handle, feeling her heartbeat rise with every increment of a centimeter it moved. Breathing softly, muscles tense, May peered through the crack in the doorway. She scanned the room. It was empty.

Years of training kept her body still as unease wormed its way through her veins. It was a trap. It had to be. It wouldn't be this easy, otherwise. She took a small step forward, placing herself just in front of the doorway, and closed the door softly behind her. Still, no movement came from the rest of the room. May took another step forward. And just as she did, a fist grabbed her hair and something sharp cut into her side. _Too good to be true. She should have known._ But she would berate her lack of common sense later. Now, she felt her training instincts kick in. This was all she could think about.

She reacted on instinct, spinning around and raising an arm to block the next blow that was surely coming in one fluid motion. Aida, impractical as ever in her neatly starched grey suit and heels, somehow still managed to execute another perfect roundhouse kick, this one high and heading for May's face. May would have to figure out how she did that, later. It probably had something to do with the robot DNA. Her forearm blocked the kick easily, barely feeling the blow as she took a step back and squared off into a fighting stance.

"Agent May." Eerily calm and formal, Aida swept a strand of hair back from her face, still advancing. She held a kitchen knife in her hand, glistening in the lamplight and slightly stained with May's blood. "You seem to not be following my orders. I thought that I told you not to leave. You really shouldn't disobey." She launched another slice of the knife at May, who ducked at the last minute, backing up as quickly as Aida was advancing.

"Sorry," May grunted, swooping forward for a quick jab and then bobbing out of the way of retaliation. "I tend not to take orders from people who keep me locked in a cabinet."

"You must understand, it's for your own good," said Aida calmly, seeming almost to believe her own words. She threw another punch at May's head, but May blocked it, landing a heavy kick on Aida's side. The LMD stumbled, but continued to advance. "Doctor Radcliffe only wants-"

But what Radcliffe wanted, May would never find out, because at that moment an explosion shook the room and the door burst open. Pieces of wood and metal and shrapnel sliced through the air, and May was knocked to the ground. Her head smacked the floor, and her vision blurred for a moment. Then it cleared, and along with it the smoke that had filled the room, and May saw the outline of three figures in the doorway.

She rose to her feet unsteadily, stepping aside as Mack's large figure rushed past her, to where Aida had been. There were sounds of a scuffle, and then the unmistakable _bang_ of an icer. Vision more clear now, May's gaze came to rest on Phil among the debris. She took a few steps forward.

"May," said Phil, an almost unconscious smile breaking out over his previously somber features.

"Coulson," May said shortly, collapsing into one of Radcliffe's kitchen chairs and peeling back the thin layer of her t-shirt to examine the cut on her side.

"What?" Phil grinned. "No thank you?"

"I had the situation under control," May said. She'd been quite clear (many times, in fact, almost always) that she didn't need to be rescued. Phil didn't reply, just raised his eyebrows a little and nodded. May rolled her eyes. She hated that sarcastic expression. She'd have to tell him sometime, when there wasn't so much rescuing going on.

"A.C., we have to get going." Daisy's voice came from somewhere behind Phil. "She's not gonna be out for much longer."

"Right." Coulson nodded, speaking into his earpiece next. "Ramirez, we'll be there in five." May fixed him with a disparaging and slightly affronted look.

"What?" Coulson said, not having the grace to look even slightly sorry. "We needed someone to fly the BUS while you were gone. What were we supposed to do, stay grounded for four days?"

 _Four days?_ May wondered. _Was that how long it had been?_ Externally though, heaving herself up from her seat, she only replied, "Yeah, that'd be a good start."

Passing her, carrying Aida's limp form as though it was a ten-pound weight, Mack chuckled. "It's good to have you back, Agent May."

Trying to cover a slight limp, following Mack, Daisy, and Phil out of Radcliffe's flat, May felt a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. _It's good to be back_ , she thought. And then she reached the doorway, and everything went black.

May had a pounding headache. It was the first thing she noticed. She peeled her eyes open, blinking as the white walls around her swirled into focus. She was strapped onto something, a table maybe, her wrists and ankles restrained. Her gaze flitted around the room, squinting as she tried to remember why she was there, who she was fighting. And then the memories came rushing back. _Radcliffe. Aida._ May began to struggle against the restraints, heart rate already rising. She had to get out.


End file.
